Mother Teresa set up her Missionaries of Charity in the slums of Kolkata, in 1950 and established her headquarters in the Indian city for almost half a century. It’s what made her an icon of Christian charity, and last night she was proclaimed a saint.
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“For the honor of the blessed Trinity, the exaltation of the Catholic faith and the increase of the Christian life, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, and our own, after due deliberation and frequent prayer for divine assistance, and having sought the counsel of many of our brother bishops, we declare and define Blessed Teresa of Calcutta to be a saint”, Pope Francis proclaimed September 4 as the crowd roared with applause.
World dignitaries, political leaders, the famous and the great flocked to this city yesterday to honor the tiny nun who lived in poverty all her life – but the most powerful tribute was paid by the quiet women in the massive crowd. The guests came from shelters run by the Missionaries of Charity, the religious order founded by Mother Teresa, in the cities of Milan, Bologna, Florence and Naples.
“I hope someday I will be like her”, said one person in attendance.
In one case, she’s said to have cured a woman with cancer.
But very few legacies are without controversy, and there are other reasons some will find difficulty calling Teresa a “saint”. Share your comments with us.
“Today, I pass on this emblematic figure of womanhood and of consecrated life to the whole world of volunteers: may she be your model of holiness!”
An estimated 120,000 people filled St Peter’s Square in Rome for the canonisation mass for Mother Teresa.
No fewer than 120,000 people attended the ceremony to celebrate the life of a woman who Francis said it might be hard to call “Saint” as people felt so close to her they spontaneously used “Mother”.
Here in Sacramento, many attended the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament service where part of the service was dedicated to the Catholic nun. “This is a moment every human being should cherish and resolve to contribute his or her might for the uplift of the dying and the destitute”, he said.
The church’s newest saint won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.
She died in 1997 and was put on a fast-track for sainthood soon thereafter.
Francis has never publicly mentioned this “darkness”, but he has in many ways modeled his papacy on Teresa and her simple lifestyle and selfless service to the poor: He eschewed the Apostolic Palace for a hotel room, made welcoming migrants and the poor a hallmark and has fiercely denounced today’s “throwaway” culture that discards the unborn, the sick and the elderly easily.
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In Brooklyn, congregants gathered at Our Lady of Victory in Bed-Stuy, a church Mother Teresa visited herself in 1995.
